T20 World Cup: Rahul Dravid hints at making changes in playing XI for semi-final

Indian head coach Rahul Dravid has given the hint about the changes to the playing XI for the upcoming semi-final match against England at the T20 World Cup 2022. After having registered a convincing win over Zimbabwe in their final Super 12 fixture at the T20 World Cup 2022 on Sunday, Team India has reached the semi-finals after securing the top spot in Group 2 as well.

Speaking to the media after India’s win over Zimbabwe, head coach Rahul Dravid has admitted that the Asian giants will pick their playing XI for the semi-finals as per the conditions. Dravid’s latest comment stated that spinner Yuzvendra Chahal might be in the Indian playing XI as the Adelaide Oval pitch usually assists slower bowlers as well.

“I think we have a completely open mind about everyone in our 15. We believe anybody who comes into the 15 will not potentially make us weaker, the kind of squad we’ve picked. Anybody that we need to pick will actually not make us a weaker squad. Again, we’ll have to go there and see. I watched some of the games (in Adelaide) today and I know the tracks were slow and they gripped and they turned a bit,” Rahul Dravid said after the match.

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However, Team India had confirmed its berth for the semi-final stage of the T20 World Cup before playing against Zimbabwe at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Moreover, South Africa’s embarrassing defeat to the Netherlands confirmed India’s qualification to the knockout stage of the T20 World Cup as well. Meanwhile, they opted to replace Dinesh Karthik with Rishabh Pant in the Indian playing XI in their final game also.

“We might be playing on a completely new strip in Adelaide, and the strip we played with against Bangladesh, to be honest, did not spin. It was, again, a different kind of wicket, and it was played at Adelaide, as well. I think I can’t sit here now just after a game and predict what’s going to happen there,” Rahul Dravid explained.

On the other hand, veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin claimed three wickets and conceded 22 runs in India’s 71-run win over Zimbabwe at the MCG. India will meet England in the second semi-final of the T20 World Cup at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday as well.

“We’ll have a couple of days; we’ll go and have a look at that wicket and see what we think it might do. Of course, if it’s slow we’ll play according to those situations. If we think it might play differently, then we’ll have to put up a squad to match that,” Rahul Dravid concluded.